New York, NY…. Meretz USA President Larry Lerner and Chairman Theodore Bikel today announced that Meretz USA, “supports the recent demonstration staged by the Bedouin Sheep Growers Committee.” Meretz USA, they said, “joins in the protest of the Bedouin’s unequal treatment by the Israeli government, as well as the Israeli government’s reluctance to engage that community in efforts to address its needs.”

Lerner and Bikel continued: “Israel is best served by a policy in which all citizens enjoy the ‘full and equal citizenship’ promised by the country’s Declaration of Independence. Such a policy is in the interests not only of Israel’s Arab citizens, but of its Jewish ones as well, who only to stand to benefit from more harmonious inter-communal relations, and from a Bedouin community that can emerge from the woefully impoverished conditions in which it currently finds itself.”

Background: Much of Israel’s Bedouin community lives in the Negev desert, in communities commonly referred to as villages that are “unrecognized” by the Israeli government. Lacking “recognition”, these villages are denied the basic services and infrastructure (running water, electricity, access roads, health and education) that the government provides to all its other citizens. This situation is among the factors contributing to the 80% poverty rate prevailing among Bedouin children.

In recent months, the Israeli government has made the Bedouin’s difficult situation even direr. Although sheep growing is a prime source of livelihood for the Bedouin – accounting for the livelihood of over 25% of this community – the Israeli government has slashed the amount of pastureland available to them, handing out this grazing land to Jewish farming units instead. Water wells utilized by the Bedouin and their flocks have also been made unusable. Making matters worse, the head of Israel’s Agriculture Ministry in the Negev region has refused to meet with the Bedouin Sheep Growers Committee to discuss their concerns, claiming that he does not recognize its existence as a representative body.

to read the rest of the statement from meretz USA website click here.